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In Progress Space Jam - a wee wiring issue

My first machine, I'd never seen the inside of one before so I thought all of that raggedy wiring was usual. Well, having seen some photos of a newish one I see that mine is in need of attention/
I have been putting it off because of the difficulty accessing it. now there is an issue, I have the perfect opportunity to sort it out.

Stripped the play-field (thought it might make it a bit lighter for ease of handling.

rustled up a rotisserie (Screwfix mitre saw stand £50, lazy Susan hardware Amazon £6 and a few bits of wood that I happened to have about and a few clamps)

There isn't much space at the top of play-field so it isn't as well mounted as I would like (may modify mounting later)

now to make a start tidying the wiring,. where is the best place to start? Little end working back to big end, or big end working towards little end?

I'll use plastic cable ties to get it more or less right the I might have a try at lacing it up.

will give the mechs a service whilst it's all apart.

THis is the first time I have tried to post a shop log, apologies if it isn't quite right.
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a bit of progress, where would I be without cable ties...
I'll have to repopulate the playfield to make sure all of the links are in the right place.
once that is done I will make a decision on lacing or not, I probably will but want to make adjustments to rotisserie mount first.
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Makes me wonder why the wiring was a mess to start with? Did it have a playfield swap before? I sold one of those spare pfs to someone last year.
 
this is what it looked like when it arrived in 2019. my first pin and I'd never seen the inside of one before so I just thought there's a lot goes on under the bonnet that I don't know.
I've always thought it a tad untidy, it wasn't until I got my second machine and realised that the wiring should be neater. But, everything was working so I let it be. then part of the harness hooked round the top target and then I knew it was time to act.

Been a bit of a learning curve so far and, no doubt, more to come.

Theere will be more fun and games when I turn it over and start on the wabbit hole wear.
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BobWood said:
this is what it looked like when it arrived in 2019. my first pin and I'd never seen the inside of one before so I just thought there's a lot goes on under the bonnet that I don't know.
I've always thought it a tad untidy, it wasn't until I got my second machine and realised that the wiring should be neater. But, everything was working so I let it be. then part of the harness hooked round the top target and then I knew it was time to act.

Been a bit of a learning curve so far and, no doubt, more to come.

Theere will be more fun and games when I turn it over and start on the wabbit hole wear.
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What’s it like to play in your opinion, I’ve never played one,
 
Itch said:
What’s it like to play in your opinion, I’ve never played one,
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I like it. There are several ‘bonus‘ modes that are triggered buy either doing the skill shot or hitting a target or ramp four times. It is a basic fan layout with ramps and a jump ball feature with two exits. All in all I like playing it
 
BobWood said:
I like it. There are several ‘bonus‘ modes that are triggered buy either doing the skill shot or hitting a target or ramp four times. It is a basic fan layout with ramps and a jump ball feature with two exits. All in all I like playing it
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Interesting to know cheers
 
Things are moving along

30 spacers in 16 sizes... guess who didn't document which one went where?

Finally got things sorted on the playfield. Checked all links are in right place. plugged into backbox and had a try to see if things worked.
most things looks OK, rest can be sorted with playfield in place

My, a populated playfield is a bit weighty, got it in with the aid of car jack and a few strategic bits of wood. (must explore the possibility of something to make playfield handling easier, or just accept the fact it is a two man job...)

I've already made a start documenting the cabling, it will likely end up as a stacked spreadsheet, I'll post it on here when completed (could be a while...)

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Now for the back box...
Decided to draw it on the pool table hard cover so I could peg out the wiring as I go.
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it still looked very rough so I decided to strip it back to the playfield. During this I discovered a broken wire,
It is coming together slowly. I'm replacing all of the IDC connectors for crimp ones and documenting where each wire goes. There is a lot of double connections on the IDC connectors. Gets a bit messy trying to crimp two wires so I've joined the wires and run a pigtail to the connector.. Not as neat as I wanted but better than it was.
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Whilst I'm at it I may as well log all of the other wires and connectors in the cabinet. It is a bit of a learning curve but I can't think of a better way to get really familiar with the machine. I don't like not knowing what 'this' wire does. I'll share the results when I have it all logged
 
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Nice one Bob, at least you have some good light in there while you are working. You will know that machine inside out.

So it’s now safe to walk the streets of Neyland 😂

Let me know if you need a hand with anything👍
 
M4carp said:
Nice one Bob, at least you have some good light in there while you are working. You will know that machine inside out.

So it’s now safe to walk the streets of Neyland 😂

Let me know if you need a hand with anything👍
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I’m OK at the moment, knee deep in wiring is pretty much my comfort zone and I’m not in a hurry. Just waiting on some clips so I can hold the connectors in place whilst I work out best route etc.
I may strip the harness down again as I have had an idea on how to handle the stuff that goes to playfield and the stuff that goes to cabinet. I’m thinking of keeping them separate (at the minute they branch half way down the harness and it is a bit messy). When I get the clips and lay it out it should become clear.
just thinking, if the clips don’t arrive, I could use the actual boards, mount them on spacers, might even run it up to test….
 
This is how Williams did it, two separate looms going from the backbox to the cabinet and playfield covered in corrugated shrouding, black and grey. Grey bing cabinet iirc. Also, on WPCs you have sub looms for high power (coils), low power (lamps) and switches, which run together but are tied up separately. That way you can arrange things independently and (somewhat) neat.
 
drhex said:
This is how Williams did it, two separate looms going from the backbox to the cabinet and playfield covered in corrugated shrouding, black and grey. Grey bing cabinet iirc. Also, on WPCs you have sub looms for high power (coils), low power (lamps) and switches, which run together but are tied up separately. That way you can arrange things independently and (somewhat) neat.
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Thanks for that. It does sound a better way of doing it. When I was stripping it back I was able to separate almost to each connector and track it back to the playfield (apart from some inter connector links and the stuff that went to the cabinet) so, at the moment, I have fifteen separate groups laced up. I still have a couple of connectors to finalise then I will be able to see what needs changing.
 
Looking at the issue where two wires need to go to the same pin. On this case, one from playfield and one from cabinet. There are several connectors where this is required on, say, eight out of ten pins.
One option is joining the two wires leaving a pigtail to go to the connector, the join then covered with heatshrink. a few of them together is tolerable but still a bit messy - see pic with yellow wires. I had considered stagering the joins so only at a time in the loom, might look a little neater.

Only issue with this is when you want to strip them out (in my case to rearrange the harness routes) you have to cut the one side off - see pic with white wires. I know it shouldn't be that often but I may take a few attempts before I decide that's as good as it gets.

A while back I got a pack of these clip connectors so I had a play to see if they could do the trick - first pic is to check layout, second pic is shortening the cables.

I have decided to glue shome of these to a bit of wood and see how it looks on an actual connector. Of course, advantage of putting on a bit of wood is so that I can keep thing stable and still be able to move it to backbox.

I will keep looking for solutions. I don;t know if they exist but I have in my mind something like a Z connector but with two sets of pins on the one side. I don't know if I have imagined this or come across something like it during my working years.






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